52. DEATH OF MOSES
In all the dealings of God with His people there is, mingled with His love and mercy, the most striking evidence of His strict and impartial justice.
This is exemplified in the history of the Hebrew people. God had bestowed great blessings upon Israel. His loving-kindness toward them is touchingly portrayed: “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: so the Lord alone did lead him.”
And yet what swift and severe retribution was visited upon them for their transgressions!
The infinite love of God has been manifested in the gift of His only-begotten Son to redeem a lost race. Christ came to the earth to reveal to men the character of His Father, and His life was filled with deeds of divine tenderness and compassion.
And yet Christ Himself declares, “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law.” Matthew 5:18.
The same voice that with patient, loving entreaty invites the sinner to come to Him and find pardon and peace, will in the judgment bid the rejecters of His mercy, “Depart from Me, ye cursed.” Matthew 25:41.
In all the Bible, God is represented not only as a tender father but as a righteous judge. Though He delights in showing mercy, and “forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” yet He “will by no means clear the guilty.” Exodus 34:7.
The great Ruler of nations had declared that Moses was not to lead the congregation of Israel into the goodly land, and the earnest pleading of God’s servant could not secure a reversing of His sentence.
He knew that he must die. Yet he had not for a moment faltered in his care for Israel. He had faithfully sought to prepare the congregation to enter upon the promised inheritance.
At the divine command Moses and Joshua repaired to the Tabernacle, while the pillar of cloud came and stood over the door.
Here the people were solemnly committed to the charge of Joshua. The work of Moses as leader of Israel was ended. Still he forgot himself in his interest for his people.
In the presence of the assembled multitude Moses, in the name of God, addressed to his successor these words of holy cheer:
“Be strong and of a good courage: for thou shalt bring the children of Israel into the land which I sware unto them: and I will be with thee.”
He then turned to the elders and officers of the people, giving them a solemn charge to obey faithfully the instructions he had communicated to them from God.
As the people gazed upon the aged man, so soon to be taken from them, they recalled, with a new and deeper appreciation, his parental tenderness, his wise counsels, and his untiring labors.
How often, when their sins had invited the just judgments of God, the prayers of Moses had prevailed with Him to spare them!
Their grief was heightened by remorse. They bitterly remembered that their own perversity had provoked Moses to the sin for which he must die.
The removal of their beloved leader would be a far stronger rebuke to Israel than any which they could have received had his life and mission been continued.
God would lead them to feel that they were not to make the life of their future leader as trying as they had made that of Moses.
God speaks to His people in blessings bestowed; and when these are not appreciated, He speaks to them in blessings removed, that they may be led to see their sins, and return to Him with all the heart.
That very day there came to Moses the command, “Get thee up . . . unto Mount Nebo, . . . and behold the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession: and die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy people.”
Moses had often left the camp, in obedience to the divine summons, to commune with God; but he was now to depart on a new and mysterious errand.
He must go forth to resign his life into the hands of his Creator. Moses knew that he was to die alone; no earthly friend would be permitted to minister to him in his last hours.
There was a mystery and awfulness about the scene before him, from which his heart shrank. The severest trial was his separation from the people of his care and love; the people with whom his interest and his life had so long been united.
But he had learned to trust in God, and with unquestioning faith he committed himself and his people to His love and mercy.
Place yourself in his shoes. God is telling you that you were to go to a specific place and die there – alone.
For the last time Moses stood in the assembly of his people. Again the Spirit of God rested upon him, and in the most sublime and touching language he pronounced a blessing upon each of the tribes, closing with a benediction upon them all:
“There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
Who rides the heavens to help you,
And in His excellency on the clouds.
The eternal God is your refuge,
And underneath are the everlasting arms;
He will thrust out the enemy from before you,
And will say, ‘Destroy!’
Then Israel shall dwell in safety,
The fountain of Jacob alone,
In a land of grain and new wine;
His heavens shall also drop dew.
Happy are you, O Israel!
Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD,
The shield of your help
And the sword of your majesty!
Your enemies shall submit to you,
And you shall tread down their high places.” Deuteronomy 33:26-29,
Moses turned from the congregation, and in silence and alone made his way up the mountainside. He went to “the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah.”
Upon that lonely height he stood, and gazed with undimmed eye upon the scene spread out before him. Far away to the west lay the blue waters of the Great Sea; in the north, Mount Hermon stood out against the sky; to the east was the tableland of Moab, and beyond lay Bashan, the scene of Israel’s triumph; and away to the south stretched the desert of their long wanderings.
In solitude Moses reviewed his life of vicissitudes and hardships since he turned from courtly honors and from a prospective kingdom in Egypt, to cast in his lot with God’s chosen people.
He called to mind those long years in the desert with the flocks of Jethro, the appearance of the Angel in the burning bush, and his own call to deliver Israel.
Again he beheld the mighty miracles of God’s power displayed in behalf of the chosen people, and His long-suffering mercy during the years of their wandering and rebellion.
Notwithstanding all that God had wrought for them, notwithstanding his own prayers and labors, only two of all the adults in the vast army that left Egypt had been found so faithful that they could enter the Promised Land.
As Moses reviewed the result of his labors, his life of trial and sacrifice seemed to have been almost in vain.
Looking back on your life, how do you view your past?
Yet he did not regret the burdens he had borne. He knew that his mission and work were of God’s own appointing. When first called to become the leader of Israel from bondage, he shrank from the responsibility; but since he had taken up the work he had not cast aside the burden.
Even when the Lord had proposed to release him, and destroy rebellious Israel, Moses could not consent. Though his trials had been great, he had enjoyed special tokens of God’s favor.
He had obtained a rich experience during the sojourn in the wilderness, in witnessing the manifestations of God’s power and glory, and in the communion of His love; he felt that he had made a wise decision in choosing to suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
As he looked back upon his experience as a leader of God’s people, one wrong act marred the record. If that transgression could be blotted out, he felt that he would not shrink from death.
He was assured that repentance, and faith in the promised Sacrifice, were all that God required, and again Moses confessed his sin and implored pardon in the name of Jesus.
Do have a memomery of one specific sin you committed? Do you, like Moses regret it? Please. If you have not yet confessed it, do so.
And if it should come up again, do what Moses dit. Keep on confessing it.
And now a panoramic view of the Land of Promise was presented to him. Every part of the country was spread out before him, not faint and uncertain in the dim distance, but standing out clear, distinct, and beautiful to his delighted vision.
In this scene it was presented, not as it then appeared, but as it would become, with God’s blessing upon it, in the possession of Israel.
He seemed to be looking upon a second Eden. There were mountains clothed with cedars of Lebanon, hills gray with olives and fragrant with the odor of the vine, wide green plains bright with flowers and rich in fruitfulness, here the palm trees of the tropics, there waving fields of wheat and barley, sunny valleys musical with the ripple of brooks and the song of birds, goodly cities and fair gardens, lakes rich in “the abundance of the seas,” grazing flocks upon the hillsides, and even amid the rocks the wild bee’s hoarded treasures.
It was indeed such a land as Moses, inspired by the Spirit of God, had described to Israel: “Blessed of the Lord . . . for the precious things of heaven, for the dew, and for the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought forth by the sun, . . . and for the chief things of the ancient mountains, . . . and for the precious things of the earth and fullness thereof.”
Moses saw the chosen people established in Canaan, each of the tribes in its own possession. He had a view of their history after the settlement of the Promised Land; the long, sad story of their apostasy and its punishment was spread out before him.
He saw them, because of their sins, dispersed among the heathen, the glory departed from Israel, her beautiful city in ruins, and her people captives in strange lands.
He saw them restored to the land of their fathers, and at last brought under the dominion of Rome.
He was permitted to look down the stream of time and behold the first advent of our Saviour. He saw Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem.
He heard the voices of the angelic host break forth in the glad song of praise to God and peace on earth. He beheld in the heavens the star guiding the Wise Men of the East to Jesus, and a great light flooded his mind as he called those prophetic words,
“There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel.” Numbers 24:17. He beheld Christ’s humble life in Nazareth, His ministry of love and sympathy and healing, His rejection by a proud, unbelieving nation.
Amazed he listened to their boastful exaltation of the law of God, while they despised and rejected Him by whom the law was given. He saw Jesus upon Olivet as with weeping He bade farewell to the city of His love.
As Moses beheld the final rejection of that people so highly blessed of Heaven-that people for whom he had toiled and prayed and sacrificed, for whom he had been willing that his own name should be blotted from the book of life; as he listened to those fearful words,
“Behold your house is left unto you desolate” (Matthew 23:38), his heart was wrung with anguish, and bitter tears fell from his eyes, in sympathy with the sorrow of the Son of God.
He followed the Saviour to Gethsemane, and beheld the agony in the garden, the betrayal, the mockery and scourging-the crucifixion.
Moses saw that as he had lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of God must be lifted up, that whosoever would believe on Him “should not perish, but have eternal life.” John 3:15.
Grief, indignation, and horror filled the heart of Moses as he viewed the hypocrisy and satanic hatred manifested by the Jewish nation against their Redeemer, the mighty Angel who had gone before their fathers.
He heard Christ’s agonizing cry, “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” Mark 15:34. He saw Him lying in Joseph’s new tomb. The darkness of hopeless despair seemed to enshroud the world.
But he looked again, and beheld Him coming forth a conqueror, and ascending to heaven escorted by adoring angels and leading a multitude of captives.
He saw the shining gates open to receive Him, and the host of heaven with songs of triumph welcoming their Commander. And it was there revealed to him that he himself would be one who should attend the Saviour, and open to Him the everlasting gates.
As he looked upon the scene, his countenance shone with a holy radiance. How small appeared the trials and sacrifices of his life when compared with those of the Son of God! how light in contrast with the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory”! 2 Corinthians 4:17.
He rejoiced that he had been permitted, even in a small measure, to be a partaker in the sufferings of Christ.
Moses beheld the disciples of Jesus as they went forth to carry His gospel to the world. He saw that though the people of Israel “according to the flesh” had failed of the high destiny to which God had called them, in their unbelief had failed to become the light of the world, though they had despised God’s mercy and forfeited their blessings as His chosen people-yet God had not cast off the seed of Abraham; the glorious purposes which He had undertaken to accomplish through Israel were to be fulfilled.
All who through Christ should become the children of faith were to be counted as Abraham’s seed; they were inheritors of the covenant promises; like Abraham, they were called to guard and to make known to the world the law of God and the gospel of His Son.
Moses saw the light of the gospel shining out through the disciples of Jesus to them “which sat in darkness” (Matthew 4:16), and thousands from the lands of the Gentiles flocking to the brightness of its rising.
And beholding, he rejoiced in the increase and prosperity of Israel.
After the break we will hear about the next interesting scene that was presented to Moses.
I have a surprise for you in our last presentation. You will enjoy the archaeology of the place where Moses died. With the latest archaeological findings we will also locate the place where he was buried.
What makes this lecture so interesting is the fact that the place from where Elijah ascended is in close proximity of the place from where Jesus resurrected Moses.